What If? Charmed Style!
by Brightstar222010
Summary: Have you ever wondered, what if? What if you woke up one morning and found that you were another daughter of Patty Halliwell? Patience Virtue Ward, is about to find out, and it may not be what she'd thought it would be.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay this is the very first story that I have written to be viewed. I would appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE criticism only. NO flames, I understand if you don't like it, but that isn't going to help me get better. Okay now that we have cleared that up, onward to the story details. This is the first story in my planned series of What If...? stories.**

**I cannot, and will not, claim Charmed as my own. All Charmed characters and such concepts belong to Aaron Spelling and Constance M. Burge. I do, however, claim my original characters and much of the concept for this story.**

**This story is begins about a month before Phoebe's return from New York.**

What if...? Funny how those two words always seem to find a way to rule our lives. What if this happens? What if that hadn't happened? What if we did this? What if I did that? What if...? It is a question that plagues us all at one point in time or another. For someone like Patience Virtue Ward, it is a gift as well as a curse. And she's about to find out just what happens when her questions are answered.

**Chapter 1: Patience Virtue Ward**

San Diego, California

February 27, 2012

10:45 P.M.

Patience Virtue Ward

Patience Virtue Ward, a twenty-four year old college student, a daughter, a sister, a fiance, and a slightly obsessive personality as a whole. This didn't make her a bad person, in fact, sometimes this very obsessiveness is what helped her to get through many of her classes at the local community college. Obsessive over what, one might ask. Well, many things really, it just sort of depends on the day, or whatever it is that catches her attention at the moment. She has been obsessed mostly with three things in her life; Motherhood, Magic, and The Force. Yes, Patience is a Star Wars nerd, but more than that she had a deep and abiding belief in, and respect for, magic of any and all types. So it was really no surprise to those who knew and loved her, that she became so obsessed with the television show Charmed.

Patience thought back on all eight seasons of her favorite show and looked down at a blank page in her journal. She'd caught herself wondering lately. Wondering, what if she could have been a part of that continuum? What if she could have traded her current life, as good as it was, for a life as a Charmed One? She stared hard at the blank first page of this new journal and lifted her pen, then brought it down onto the page.

_What if I woke up one morning and found that I was a child of Patty Halliwell and Victor Bennett? A fifth Halliwell child. I realize that this is likely the most impossible thing that I could ever think up. Heh, what the hell though, right? Why can't I wish for a life that I can't have in my reality? I've said it many times, I would do just about anything to have a family like the Halliwells. To have sisters like the Charmed Ones, that would be great. I've always wanted older sisters. My life has never been the greatest, but I've always striven to live it to the fullest with as little complaint as possible. To have siblings like them, sisters who will stand beside me through thick and thin. Hell I'd give my right arm for a family that did that for me in real life. Anyway, I think this question is worth asking, if only to get my mind thinking of another story. I haven't written anything in awhile._

She looked down at what she'd written, rolled her brown eyes, and wondered if she was beginning to lose her mind. It was true, her life had never been the greatest. She'd been bounced around from home to home, slipped through the cracks of the system, had lost connection with her family. Her mainstay in her life at the moment was her fiance, Tremaine Latham. The Florida native was a wonderful man, and he seemed to understand her on a level that she could never have imagined. Like her, he believed in the magic of the world, and he didn't shun her or push her away for the way she obsessed over things.

**_I wonder if Tre would be represented in the Charmed Universe, if I were to ever wake up and find myself living that sort of life._** Patience thought with a smile. **_Would he be a normal mortal? I've always seen him as a guardian angel of sorts. Kinda neurotic at times, over protective, but ultimately the type of guy that I would want looking after me._** She watched the pen in her hand trace through the air as she played with it.

The brown eyed woman sighed and looked back down at her journal. Still, though, the question rang in her mind. **_What if I woke up one morning and I was a fifth child of Patty Halliwell?_** She felt almost compelled to write a story for that question. However, having never experienced that type of a life, Patience could barely imagine how she would walk that path. That type of magic didn't really exist in her world. Whether for good or bad, Patience was also on the fence about it. She believed that most magic was wonderful, beautiful, and in some ways necessary for the real world to carry on as it always had. But there was also that magic that wasn't so good for the world. That kind of magic was what always kept her from imagining something more.

Patience, always had a problem imagining the bad side of things. As an eternal optimist, she'd always found a way to find that silver lining. She couldn't get her mind to wrap around the idea that someone or something could truly be as evil as The Source. It was one of the things she could always understand about Cole, that eternal struggle. Sure he was half demon, but he still had a human side, that was capable of so much good.

"Gah, look at me, I'm sitting here thinking about something that isn't real. Get a grip, Pay." She told herself with a laugh.

It was one of Patience's more endearing qualities, her ability to laugh at herself, no matter how serious she was. It wasn't that she couldn't be serious, the reality was that she could be. She often was quite serious about what was going on around her, and what she was doing. Patience had that drive to succeed, but she also knew how to relax, to step back and look at things objectively and then laugh at all the stupid things she was doing. She'd always had that quality. It was something that Tremaine had told her he loved about her, and it had become something that she really liked about herself.

She looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table and sighed. **_Already a quarter to midnight._** She thought to herself. She looked down at her journal page again and brought her pen back down to paper.

_I know that it is likely that I will wake up tomorrow morning and look at this entry and laugh at myself, but for the sake of humoring myself, and to satisfy my own urge to give in to the magic I know exists in some universe out there, I part tonight with a wish, and a spell._

_In this night and in this hour_

_I call upon the ancient power_

_So that I might finally know_

_The love of true family_

_Please make it so_

_Yeah, not my best spell work, but I'm no Phoebe Halliwell. Time for bed._

With that the young woman smiled and put her pen down. She pushed a strand of soft brown hair out of her eyes and looked over her work. With a smile she read aloud her first ever spell. "In this night and in this hour, I call upon the ancient power, So that I might finally know, The love of true family, Please make it so."

Without so much as another glance at her clock, which at that exact moment had turned its numbers to that of 12:00, Patience stood up and closed her journal, leaving it on her desk. She switched off her light and crawled into bed with a tired yawn. It wasn't long before she was soundly sleeping, falling asleep far faster than she normally did, but she could have cared less. Nights like this were way too few and far between. Who was she to complain how quickly she fell into that blissful warm velvet blanket called sleep.

The moment that sleep took her, there was a flash of lightning across the sky and the clouds rolled away from in front of the moon to reveal its fullness, before once again covering it and letting loose a torrent of rain to patter against the earth below.

**A/N: Like I said, first story to publish on Fan fiction. Please review, but please do not flame. I will try to update again this week. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter in the Patience Virtue Ward Saga.**


	2. Dream or Reality?

**A/N: Yeah sorry bout the wait folks. I kinda decided that pneumonia was in the cards for me. Anyway I'm better now and ready t get back to this story.**

**Funny thing, I had to go back and reread the first chapter I posted to remember where I had been planning on going with it.**

**Chapter 2: Dream or Reality**

San Francisco, CA

September 8,1998

7:30 A.M.

Patience Halliwell

She wasn't sure what had awakened her, or why it had, but the fact remained that she was awake. She felt different, not altogether a bad thing considering that she'd been having a bit of a challenging week. Her brows furrowed as she sat up in bed, her eyes wide open, unable to sleep any longer. Everything looked alright, nothing had changed or moved in her bedroom during the night. There had obviously been no earthquakes otherwise her sisters would have gotten her out of her slumber sooner.

What was it then? Something was just, not the same. Shivering involuntarily, Patience threw her blankets off of her and slid her legs over the edge of her bed. Her bare feet met the soft carpeting of the the floor and she stretched as she stood. She mad her way to her bedroom door but stopped short when she passed her desk. She stared at it for a moment trying to remember why it was so important that she look over there. It wasn't really anything special, being the same desk she'd grown up with. It had been the only piece of furniture that had stayed with her since she was in first grade. She supposed that she felt a sort of attachment to it, but not enough of one that she'd feel like it was missing something.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. A sigh escaped her lips and she turned toward her door again. Sometimes she felt as if she was going completely insane. A feeling that had been nearly drowning her since Grams had passed and Phoebe had left. Maybe she was losing it. She just didn't feel right today, more than was her usual for the last five months. She passed Grams' portrait on the wall as she came down the stairs and she smiled at it, brushing a finger along the bottom edge of the frame as she did every morning.

Something inside her asked why she did that? She couldn't really recall when she'd started doing so, just that it gave her a small sense of comfort when she did. Grams was Grams after all, even if it was just the portrait that she had of the old woman now. Stepping off of the bottom step, Patience stopped to look around as if she were viewing the scene before her for the first time. But she wasn't. She'd grown up in the manor, she knew all of it's nooks and crannies and hiding places by heart. Then why did she suddenly feel like she was standing here for the very first time?

For several long moments she just stood there taking everything in. The way the furniture was placed, the grandfather clock to her right, the chandelier above her. Her brows furrowed, was there something different about the chandelier? She felt that it was somehow important for her to understand it's significance. Why though? Why was it so significant?

"Ugh!" She growled under her breath. Why was she suddenly having all of these strange thoughts? They were positively driving her deeper into the madness that seemed only too close to the surface of her fragile spirit right now. She missed Grams. "She'd know what to tell me." She whispered to herself as she continued through the manor and into the kitchen.

Two heads turned her way as she entered. Two sets of eyes watched her carefully, assessing her, gauging whether she was feeling alright this morning. She felt suddenly like a science experiment, her sisters the scientists that were taking careful notes. She tried to brush off the feeling. She couldn't really blame them for their observations, she hadn't been the easiest person to live with the last few months. Still, had she really been that bad?

Patience watched them out of the corner of her eye as she grabbed a coffee cup and filled it with what was left in the pot. Silently she was grateful that Piper always made the second pot of coffee. Prue's blend was harsh, even if it did serve to wake her up. After that task was complete she turned to face her two older sisters and leaned against the counter. She took first one sip, and then another and another before the staring started to irritate her.

"Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose or something?" She asked, leveling her brown eyes at the other women.

Piper snorted as she tried to suppress her quiet laughter. Prue just blinked and raised a delicate brow. Her head tilted to the side slightly and she shook her head. "Um, ew." She replied. Despite her trying to hide it, Patience could see a ghost of a smile on Prue's lips as she turned away.

_Maybe it's time I stopped hiding away from them. I wasn't the only one who lost Grams._ Patience thought as she smiled a little. She was glad that she could still make her sisters laugh. _Grams would be giving me that look if she could see how I've withdrawn from them._ Her smile grew sad again as she thought of Grams.

"Hey, uh, how about we go for a picnic this weekend?" Piper's silent laughter stopped and she looked over at Prue with a strange expression. Prue's green eyes locked with Patience's brown ones. "You know to get out of the house and all that. I looked in the mirror last night and realized I so need a tan"

Prue looked like a weight had suddenly lifted from her shoulders. _God, how much have I worried her?_ Patience asked herself. "If you don't want to that's fine I'll just, um you know, hang around here and spend some time in the garden or something." Suddenly she had the strangest urge to just crawl in a hole. Prue didn't know it, but she could be rather intimidating sometimes.

"No, a picnic sounds great. You sure you're up for it?" The green eyed woman asked watching her youngest sister intensely.

"Prue, I don't know why you didn't drag me out for some sun three months ago." Patience replied with a great sigh. She ran her fingers through her light brown hair and bit her bottom lip for a moment before continuing. "Yes I am very sure that I'm up for it." She didn't want to say that last night's dream also made her want to spend more time with her. There was something strange about that dream, like it had been almost real, too real.

Was that why she felt so strange this morning? Like she was waking up from a dream that seemed too real. Was this the dream world? Or was the dream she'd had during the night, the dream world? Patience couldn't tell what was real any more. Lucky for her, the mysteries were only just beginning.

**A/N: Okay if you guys couldn't tell, I had Patience wake up thinking that her previous life had only been but a dream. I figured if you're going to wake up on morning and be a different person you might as well wake up feeling like you've been that person your entire life.**

**Patience will have 'memories' from her 'dream' pop into her head and sometimes warn her of the danger that is to come, but it won't always be clear to her what to do.**

**As always, please review and tell me how I'm doing please. Thanks for reading.**


	3. Calm Before the Storm

**A/N: Oh my heavens I am so sorry that it took me so long to update. I lost my muse (Brightstar: *Glares at Patience*) But I seem to have found her again. **

**Also I failed to put a disclaimer on the second chapter and I will do so now for last chapter and this one. I OWN NOTHING... well except Patience and some of the plot.**

**That being said, let me just run and get some of my wonderful mother's chocolate cake and we'll be off.**

**Chapter 3: The Calm Before the Storm**

September 28, 1998

9:21 P.M.

Patience Halliwell

The weeks passed with barely any notice at all. Granted, Pay did feel the time pass a little more than her sisters did, though she couldn't really understand why. She seemed to be almost hypersensitive about certain things lately, like she was waiting for something, or someone. Perhaps it was both. Almost as if someone else was in her body. She paid much more attention to her surroundings and even more to the people she interacted with on a daily basis, namely her sisters. While Prue seemed the same as always, a little less worried about her youngest sister and more about work, Piper seemed to withdraw and become more quiet.

Patience was certain that Piper knew something that she wasn't telling her sisters. And what was more, Pay was sure that it was about Phoebe. Whenever she thought about it she became more confident that she was right. The last week she'd been trying to draw Piper into a conversation that would confirm her suspicions. So far, her older sister was proving to be rather more stubborn about it than she had originally anticipated. A part of her wasn't really all that surprised, after all this was Piper.

She let out a frustrated sigh and found herself staring at the door to the room that had once been Phoebe's. She hadn't managed to stand here without breaking down, at least, not for months. Now, however, she felt a strange surge of excitement. She began to wonder if she didn't already know what was going to happen. If she was right, then Piper was communicating with Phoebe, and if that were so then there was a distinct possibility that Phoebe would be coming back home. Pay's breath caught in her throat as she was overcome with the sudden confirmation she had hardly dared hope for. Certainly she was still furious at her big sister for leaving, but she missed her terribly and beyond that fury was a yearning to have the rest of her family safely home again.

Hearing the front door shut, she shook her head in an effort to clear it and turned away from the closed door of Phoebe's room. Patience was now very sure that her most adventurous sister was going to be home soon. The worry she'd been feeling seemed to melt away and she felt suddenly lighter. The smile she showed to Piper was genuine and had a hint of knowing tucked into the corners.

"What are you smiling about?" The older of the two asked tilting her head to the side.

"I just kinda, have a really good feeling, like my family isn't falling apart around me after all." She gave a cheeky grin to match the look of confusion that found its way onto Piper's features. "I hate to ask, but how was your date with Jeremy?" That was another thing that was new. Pay couldn't recall actually feeling so hostile toward Jeremy before the beginning of the month. Now, she was very cautious around him. Her instincts telling her that he was dangerous, but she couldn't just say that to Piper without any sort of proof. Again, she had the feeling that he would reveal his hand to Piper in his own way and she would make sure he payed for it in spades. Until then she was up the creek without a paddle.

"It was good, fun. We talked about food." The older woman did not miss the look of disdain on Patience's features when she said Jeremy's name. She didn't say anything about it though. She figured it was just her little sister being either overprotective, or, like Prue, overly cautious. "So why are you smiling?"

Pay just shook her head and walked into the sun room. Prue wasn't home yet, so she was more than comfortable of bringing the topic of Phoebe up with Piper. "I was just thinking that I can't wait for Phoebe to come home." She said casually sitting on the wicker loveseat and pulling her feet up comfortably. From the corner of her eye she could see Piper frown thoughtfully.

"What makes you think that Phoebe's coming home?" She asked sitting in the chair opposite Patience.

"You can be really obvious sometimes you know that. Especially when you are trying not to be obvious." The younger woman answered.

A flash of panic crossed Piper's expression before it was gone again. "I don't know what you are talking about. If I knew that Phoebs was coming home than I would have said something." Piper waved her hand scoffed.

"Yeah, if you wanted to risk Prue changing the locks. But you don't, so you haven't said anything." Pay was inspecting her fingernails like they were the most interesting things in the world. "Besides knowing you, you're probably waiting for Phoebe to say something herself." She looked up into the doe brown eyes looking back at her. "We both know that she isn't going to."

Piper let out a heavy sigh and ran her fingers through her hair nervously. "I hate being the middle sister." She breathed before looking out the window.

Patience grinned. She had the very distinct feeling that being the middle sister wasn't the only thing that Piper was going to hate. _Maybe I should just role with this knowing stuff thing. I mean it's a bit annoying at times, but maybe it could come in handy._ She thought staring at the fireplace, but not really seeing it.

"Does Prue know?" Piper wondered out loud.

"Highly unlikely. She's been busy trying to secure some kind of collection for the museum. It's a wonder she hasn't forgotten where she lives." The twenty-two year old said.

Piper narrowed her eyes for a moment. She wondered if Patience had a clue how much like Phoebe she looked and acted sometimes. She really couldn't fault the younger woman though. Unlike said sister and even Prue, Patience had rarely given Grams and problems at all. It would almost be a nice change of pace if Pay would go do something stupid. The sisters locked eyes once more. Piper came to the conclusion that, yes, Pay did know how much she was like Phoebe, and no, she was not going to ruin her perfectly good record of having not gone through a rebellious phase like Prue's or Phoebe's.

Piper rolled her eyes and shook her head before getting up and walking out of the room.

**A/N: And there it is Chapter Three. Next chapter, Phoebe comes home! Woot! Read and Review please and thank you. **


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